Apple Fires at HTC, But the Target Is Google

Apple on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against HTC, alleging that the Taiwanese smartphone maker has violated several patents related to the iPhone hardware and interface. But the salvo is as much a shot across the bow of Google, Apple’s increasingly competitive rival.

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a press release. “We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

The patents listed in the complaint are related to touchscreens, multitouch gestures, graphical user interfaces, signal processing and other features Apple uses in its iPhone. Apple also filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission in an effort to block imports of handsets that violated the patents cited in the lawsuit.

Apple’s lawsuit can be construed as an indirect attack on Google, whose Android operating system powers the Nexus One to mimic some of the iPhone’s capabilities, such as multitouch gestural input. Apple’s complaint filed to the International Trade Commission explicitly accuses HTC’s Android-based products for infringing the patents. HTC also sells phones running Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS, but Apple does not call out Windows phones. And it was only a month ago that Google updated the OS on the Nexus One to include pinch-to-zoom functionality.

The lawsuit underscores rising tension between Apple and Google. The two corporations became more direct competitors in the past year with the release of Android and the introduction of the Chrome OS for netbooks. Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple’s board of directors due to “conflicts of interest.” Though Jobs made the departure sound amicable, he reportedly called Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” mantra a “load of crap” during a recent town hall meeting with Apple staff. And it still isn’t entirely clear why a Google Voice app is at best in iPhone approval process limbo.

Suing HTC may be a roundabout way to attack Google, but if successful, it would be a powerful blow against the search giant. HTC is both Google’s strongest partner and the fourth largest smartphone maker after Nokia. HTC’s Nexus One has been unofficially dubbed the Google Phone.

HTC said it has yet to review Apple’s filing and provide a response.

“HTC values patent rights and their enforcement but is also committed to defending its own technology innovations,” an HTC spokesman said in a statement. “HTC only learned of Apple’s actions this morning via media reports, and therefore we have not yet had the opportunity to investigate the filings. Until we have had this opportunity, we are unable to comment on the validity of the claims being made against HTC.”